Oceanside Getting Better and Gulp! Gulp! and more Gulp!
This week in Grumpys shop news, like most other weeks, we had new products come in. We had more Van Staal reels come in, including a couple of the updated for 2021 VR series reels. These have an stronger main shaft, better waterproofing and now offer black as a color in all sizes. We also got in the hard to find Van Staal Power Grip Handle Knob for the VSX reels. These have been selling fast.
The other big arrival was Berkley Gulp!. Lots of Gulp!. No, seriously, the biggest order of Gulp! Ray has ever made. Both the bags of Gulp! and the tubs of Gulp! Alive came. Grubs, Swimming Mullet, Nemesis, Jerk Shads, Shrimp, Ghost Shrimp and Sand Eels. In tons of colors, both the popular ones and a few niche colors. (Don’t overlook the niche colors, there are days they are the only color that works. Fluke can be weird and picky that way…) And we are keeping the same low price on Gulp! that we had for the past couple of years. Come to Grumpys, your official Gulp! headquarters for fluke season.
We have an upcoming order that we know many of you are looking forward to. ODM will be dropping off a bundle of rods, including the popular and difficult to find 9’ ODM D.N.A. rods. Keep an eye on Instagram and Facebook for an announcement when they arrive.
We also received a shipment of Gear Up! Bags and belts. Come on into the shop to see what showed up.
A little bit of bad news. It finally happened. Island Beach State Park has run out of yearly mobile sportfishing passes. We hope you got yours. We warned you. Twice…
As far as reports go, well start with a boat report (because it comes with the picture at the head of the report…)
On Tuesday evening, Scott from the shop came in on his day off to not only remind the rest of us that he was fishing while we were working, but also to show off what he caught. He had a tautog (blackfish) that was 17 inches long and 3.8 pounds, and an Atlantic cod that was 25 inches and 6 pounds even. Both were caught using green crabs on S&S Whitechin Wrecker jigs. He said he got them at the north jetty on IBSP, but we suspect he was on a boat significantly further from shore than the jetty would allow you to get.
For those who don’t have a boat, we have some good news for you. The bay remains hot for striped bass fishing, and moderately warm for winter flounder. There are no hotspots because the small stripers seem to be moving around all over the place now. They are getting them in the day on bloodworms and at night on all sorts of small artificial lures.
And in even better news we have received reports of some schoolie bass being caught in the surf. The water is still cold enough to keep this as a bait game for now, so if you want to catch a bass while facing France, you will need to use bait. Clams, bloodworms and bunker chunks are all working. Oh, yeah, we now have fresh bunker, and, assuming the bunker boat can get out, should have it for the rest of the season.
Our Gulp! order was so big Ray had to stay late to put it all away. He was here to almost 11:00 pm to do so. He was exhausted the next day.
Bob was not impressed…
